Cafeteria Repetition
by DreamNZ
Summary: An oddly familiar conversation catches the ears of the Cullens during lunch in a cafeteria. Now a three-parter.
1. Cafeteria Repetition

I sat at a cafeteria table, self-consciously aware that all eyes were on me. The new girl - the new blood.

I was sitting with a group of people, having been invited to do so by a girl I had sat next to in Spanish class the period before. My dark hair was around my shoulders - trying to hide my face from prying eyes, but it didn't seem to be working.

I peered around and finally found a group of people who weren't absorbed in staring at me or whispering and pointing at me.

"Who are they?" I asked my companion... Jessica. Yes, Jessica was her name.

"Who?" was the reply, and I pointed out the table of five amazingly beautiful people. "Oh, _them_. They're the Cullens. They're all foster children of Dr. Cullen and his wife, and they're all _together_." The scandal in her tone was apparent. "Those two on the end - the blond guy and the black-haired girl are Jasper Hale and his girlfriend Alice Cullen. The blonde girl is Rosalie Hale - Jasper's twin - and next to her is her boyfriend Emmett Cullen."

Jessica paused then, staring at the last of the five.

"Who's the other one?"

Jessica sighed. "Edward Cullen."

Edward was probably the most beautiful of the five - except for the one called Rosalie.

"And is he... alone?"

Jessica was about to respond when the question was answered.

A dark-haired girl flitted by our table and an impossibly short second later she was across the room, joining the rest of the Cullens. Edward pulled her into his lap and whispered into her ear.

I could swear that her eyes - a lovely topaz color - settled on my face for a moment before the whole table of Cullens burst into laughter. I ducked my head and blushed.

"That's Bella Hale - Jasper and Rosalie's cousin." Jessica said. "She's with Edward," she added needlessly before being forcibly pulled back into a conversation on the other side of her.

I listened to the Cullens' laughter. I couldn't help wondering if I was the reason for their laughter.

"Uh, Roger?" I asked the guy sitting next to me. He turned to me and smiled eagerly. "The Cullens - they wouldn't be laughing at me for some reason, would they?" I felt stupid asking, but I just had this feeling…

Roger glanced briefly at their table and then shook his head.

"I doubt it. They're always laughing about one thing or another."

I allowed myself one more look at their table, but they all seemed to be talking amongst themselves now, no one looking at me. I shrugged and turned back to Roger.

"So, Morgan, tell me about yourself?" he asked.

I looked at Roger. He was no Jasper Hale or Emmett or Edward Cullen, but he was cute. And he was interested in me. So I smiled, brushed my hair off my shoulders and forgot all about the Cullens.

**************

This is my first foray into the fanfiction world of "Twilight." I'm not sure why, but I just get tickled by the thought that sometime in Bella's future she'll be part of the Cullen's table at lunch and she'll be the envy of all the girls. And someday there will be a new girl in her school who wants to know who the table full of beautiful people are, just like Bella did at one time...

And where's Nessie? Wherever Jacob is, of course!


	2. The Underlying Truth

Dedicated to Awesomeness 101

**************

Another lunch period in another cafeteria in another high school in another city in another state. Another. Another. Another. Wonder if words begin to have no meaning to other people when they say them over and over to themselves like they do with me?

I pick apart a breadstick that I would never eat and try to tune out the talk - and thoughts - of those around me, including my siblings.

Another school, another city, another state. I bite back a grin. Anyone eavesdropping on _my_ thoughts would probably think me morose and depressed. Quite the opposite. I'm elated that it's another lunch period in another cafeteria in another high school in another city in another state. One more day in my lifetime, one more lunch period of probably thousands to come.

I used to try to avoid such thoughts. I wouldn't say they depressed me, but they weren't exactly encouraging either. What's the point of eternal life when you're always thirsty, and there's no one to share it with outside of your parents and your siblings - who you love, of course, but who all have mates that they're very much in love with and who have no qualms about thinking about their mates? Often. _Graphically_.

I shudder at the things I've had to hear and see in my mind.

"Are you all right, Edward?" Alice asks.

"Fine," I say, going back to tearing the tiny pieces of breadstick into even tinier molecules. Wonder how small I can get them?

"He's just missing Bella," Rosalie teases. "Where is she anyways?"

"She stayed after class to help her lab partner try to understand the differences between the phases of meiosis and the phases of mitosis," Emmett says, who has Biology with her. "I think the kid pretends to not understand just to get to talk to her more," he chuckles.

"I know he does." Poor guy has no clue he doesn't have a chance in the world with Bella. It would almost be amusing… if he didn't sometimes have lurid daydreams about her. If she's not out of there in five minutes I'm going after her and bursting his bubble…

The breadstick is massacred by now, so I'm forced to start tuning back in to reality.

Morgan Isaacson.

Morgan seems to be the talk of the cafeteria and in the thoughts of most people's minds. Who's Morgan?

I glance around the cafeteria quickly and find the source of the chatter. Morgan is obviously the new girl. Petite and pale, dark-haired and pretty. She is definitely on the thoughts of most of the males, and already the speculative enemies of many of the females.

I tune in just in time to hear the exchange been Jessica and Morgan. My siblings obviously hear it too.

"There's something strangely familiar about that conversation…" Alice trails off, her eyes twinkling at me. Of course she knew what it reminded her of. Her memory is just as good as mine.

"New girl in town, wanting to know who we are?" Jasper muses. "Doesn't ring any bells with me!" His grin tells the lie though.

"Why are you all smiling like that?"

Ah, at last! My beautiful Bella arrives! She tries to sit next to me, but that doesn't last for long. Once I have her safely in my lap I whisper in her ear.

"A new girl in town, sitting by Jessica Kramer, wants to know who we are."

Bella's eyes land Morgan's face for a brief moment before meeting mine. She grins.

"Let me guess. 'They're all _together_,'" she mocks perfectly, causing our siblings and I to burst out laughing.

We've heard it before. The shock and scandal that Dr. and Mrs. Cullen's foster kids are all couples. Long before Bella we tried to pretend that we were all only siblings, but Alice and Jasper and Rosalie and Emmett just couldn't do it. Looking at my Bella, I understand why.

What strikes us as funny is not that all the students think we're scandalous, but at the thought that they only know the half of it.

That Alice and Jasper have been married for over fifty years now, and they still have moments where they disappear for a weekend without warning, coming back smirking and - in Alice's case - giggling like a schoolgirl with a crush.

That Rosalie and Emmett have been married so many times that even I have to stop to think in order to count. And we still banish them to a two month honeymoon whenever they do get married - just for our own peace of minds.

And Bella and I - well, all these years later and the family still makes sure that we have a place of our own to spend our nights in, for _their _peace of minds. And not only that, but we have a daughter. How scandalous would these children consider that? A daughter and a son-in-law, who keeps hinting that "grandpups" may very well be in our future, if he and Nessie have anything to say about it.

So we laugh. Bella in my lap, Alice in Jasper's arms, Emmett with his hand in an inappropriate place … blocking those thoughts! … and the mundane soap opera world of high school life for normal teenagers goes on around us. If only they knew… probably best they don't.

**************

I was quite content with "Cafeteria Repitition" being a one shot, but then Awesomeness 101 had to go and make me think. Why _exactly_ were the Cullens laughing? I realized that I didn't have a succinct answer, so this was born.

Unfortunately, she just HAD to go and ask for it in Edward's POV... but once challenged I had to try. Do I like this story? Yes. Do I think it captures Edward's way of thinking? Not at all! It more captures _my_ random thought patterns. Oh well! That's why fiction is so great... you get to do what you want to do!


	3. Vaporous Memories

Put me in a room full of humans, and I'm fine. Put me next to Edward, and that's when my instincts kick in and I have to force myself to be good and resist the most delectable of temptations. This isn't once in awhile or every so often. This is every single time I see him, nonetheless touch him.

Edward told me, back during my first night as a vampire, that it took a decade before the family was willing to be anywhere near Rosalie and Emmett when they were feeling… frisky. Ha! We've got them beat by quite a few years. Good thing our family can afford two homes wherever we move, even if Edward and I normally get a smaller home on the property. All we really need is a bed. And sometimes not even that.

All this is going through my mind as I sit in Edward's lap, laughing along with my brothers and sisters, pretending to eat lunch in a cafeteria. It isn't until my next class period - honors English - that I realize exactly why they were smiling when I joined them for lunch.

My human memories are few and grow less as time passes on. My life is full of distractions - the smell of blood, my daughter, my son-in-law, my family, Edward. Especially Edward. I do not have a lot of time to spend dwelling on the life that used to be mine. I make a point to remember most of my human life that revolved around Edward, but if he wasn't front and center - by my side - I tend to let those memories go.

Sometimes though my human memories come back to me, subconsciously bidden by unknown triggers. That is what is happening now.

It always happens the same. A wisp of a thought tickles my mind. Sometimes its an image, sometimes a word or the note of a song. Today it is a name. Jessica.

Edward had said _"__A new girl in town, sitting by Jessica Kramer, wants to know who we are."_ I dismissed the wisp to the back of my mind and went back to pretending to concentrate on the teacher's lecture on "_Pygmalion_,"while actually thinking about the upcoming summer break.

Edward and I are planning on visiting Nessie and Jake for a few weeks, and therefore Charlie and Sue, of course. And the rest of the pack. Then we will go on to Esme's Island for the entirety of the rest of the summer vacation. It will be our first visit back to the island since our honeymoon - my first visit that won't require enough eggs to feed an army. Just the two of us. On a remote island. With the soft, white bed with soft feather pillows. I wonder if we can make it snow feathers again?

"Eliza is not an admirable character because of her transformation from mere flower girl to a perceived duchess, she is admirable because she forces the reader to realize that the only difference between a flower girl and a duchess is how others treat her." I say in answer to the teacher's question.

I force myself to stop focusing on Edward, and try to refocus my attention on the lecture. After all, I actually do enjoy "_Pygmalion_."

But a stronger memory wisp clouds my thinking for a brief moment. Jessica Stanley.

So this is a human memory that I will be forced to remember. Sometimes I can stop them from resurfacing. It's not that I don't like remembering being a human, it's just that I don't need to remember. I have all that I need in the life that I live now. But sometimes the old human instincts and the old human memories are more persuasive than I'd like to give them credit for.

I put a quarter of my concentration on the discussion going on around me - just in case I was called on again - and let the rest of my thoughts rest and await the memory.

Another wisp. This time an image. I'm looking at a girl with an explosion of curly brown hair. I can't see her very well - like most of my human memories this one is dark and muted and a little unfocused. But I instinctively know that this is Jessica Stanley.

A stronger memory. I'm with Jessica Stanley, sitting in a cafeteria.

And then the firestorm.

Ah, so on my first day at a new school I had sat with Jessica Stanley during lunch and asked her who my family was. Once upon a time I had looked upon their perceived perfection and had known that their beauty and grace would never be mine. That I would never be allowed to encroach upon their clear boundaries and join their sullen family solitude.

"Eliza would rather marry Freddy and be treated like a duchess than spend her life with Henry Higgins being treated like an experiment."

And now a new girl in school is going through the same thing. She saw our supposed flawlessness and wishes she could somehow be a part of our magic.

I wish I could tell her that we aren't what we seem to be. Besides the fact that we are not human, that we drink the blood of animals - all the while wishing it was the blood of a human the gushes down our throats, we are all far from perfect. The facade we put forth day by day hides the truth of who we are. My husband and my siblings have not changed their guises since I had first gazed upon them all those years ago.

"I think Eliza is actually in love with Henry Higgins, but why would she stay when she knows that he'll never feel the same? He still sees her as a flower girl, and he'll never see her as anything more."

I'm pretty sure I know what it was that Morgan saw today in the cafeteria. Jasper would seem intellectual and handsome, but would very obviously appear to wish to be anywhere else but there. Alice would be overlooked - she's so pixie-like and petite that most girls don't realize she's also quite pretty. Rosalie would be pegged as the gorgeous bitch with a better-than-thou attitude. Emmett would strike fear just due to his size, and she would assume that because of the brawn he would have no brains. And Edward - well he would be seem smoldering and sullen and sultry all at once.

In reality my family are so much more than they appear to be.

Jasper still struggles with human blood more than any of us. He can sit in a crowded room now and suffer through a human with a paper cut, but he'll have to hunt immediately afterwards. And his appearance - he is incredibly handsome, of course - but to vampire eyes we see the marks of his violent past covering his body. And he feels an almost constant guilt for his past, despite his peaceful existence now.

Alice seems like a pixie until you get to know her, and then she seems like a giant. Her personality is so huge that she can take over a conversation in a second flat and make you enjoy it. And she's anything but gentle when her family is in trouble. I've seen her rip apart a vampire all by herself, despite Jasper's efforts to help her.

Rosalie can be bitchy sometimes, but we all love her despite it. When she's in a good mood she's a wonderful person - funny and caring. Normally when she's in a bad mood she'll immerse herself in the cars - not returning until she's covered in grease and oil and smiling again. Sometimes though when she goes into a rage she'll run off and we won't see her for several days. Emmett normally follows her, and while he won't tell us what she does, he has assured us she isn't hurting anyone.

Emmett is as gentle as he is huge - normally. He can take down a grizzly and drain it dry in less than 30 seconds when he's really thirsty. When he's not really thirsty he plays with the grizzlies - wrestling with them and chasing them - giving them one last hurrah before draining them dry. But he's also really intelligent - he takes all honors and AP classes and it usually takes the teachers several weeks before they realize he really belongs there. And when I need someone to talk to - to really sit down and talk to seriously when something's bothering me that I can't tell Edward about - then he's always the one I go to.

Edward is still complex to me. Sometimes I can't seem to figure out what he's thinking. And although I love him dearly, I wish he would lighten up on his protection sometimes. I am strong now, quite able to be a superhero now instead of the damsel in distress - but he still treats me like I'm made of eggshells. The last time we came upon a group of human-drinkers that wanted to fight he wouldn't let me even try to take them on. For that he didn't get to hear my thoughts for quite sometime. Serves him right!

"Well, yes, I think Henry does love Eliza - but not the type of love she's looking for. He loves her for what she can do for him, for how she proves that he's a mastermind at his work."

I mentally shook my head. Whatever this new girl thought she saw when she looked at my family, I'm sure she had no idea who they really are as people.

When we left for lunch I saw that she was pretty cozy with Roger Everett. Good for her. We aren't the type of people that humans need to get involved with. Sure, I did, but I really didn't have a choice. I was Edward's _la tua cantante_ and I was in turn irresistibly drawn to him. And once I got to know his family, I couldn't help but fall in love with them too. And now they're my family also, a fact that I will be eternally grateful for.

The bell rings and I pack up my books. As I leave the classroom though, I can't help but wonder what it was that the new girl saw when she saw me?

**************

Okay, so I did another segment. This one I was working on for quite awhile. Sometimes Bella's voice would come to me and other times I had to fight for it. But it was fun trying to get into her head.

Oh - don't go looking for any deep hidden meaning in what Bella has to say about "_Pygmalion_." I was just trying to show how Bella can be introspective and pay attention in class at the same time. And I personally really loved "_Pygmalion_" when I had to read it in Honors English all those years ago.

It's set up so that there's a possiblity for more one shots from other character's points of views, but I can't make any promises. It all depends on whether or not I can get into anyone else's head!

Happy New Year everyone - may 2009 be MUCH better than 2008!


End file.
